Expert Opinion: Are you using the right off-site IT recovery solution?

Stockport IT support business, Amshire IT, explains the two main IT recovery solutions available to businesses and which is right for different sorts of organisations should they need to recover their data in the event of a hardware failure or security breach.

There has been great advancement in technology innovation in the last 10 years to make data retention quicker, more reliable and effective in protecting against data breaches and hardware corruption. Backup as a Service (BaaS) and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) are the most common cloud service models used for off-site IT recovery solutions but it can be easy to get these solutions confused. So, what is the difference and the merits of each?

What is Backup as a Service (BaaS)?

BaaS is a fully-managed cloud backup service which means organisations can store critical data through an off-site provider over the internet. A BaaS solution offers complete protection of primary data of a business in the event of computer failure, human error or disaster through replicating your primary data into a secure second data centre.

What is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)?

DRaaS cloud services are designed to be a saving grace for an organisation in the worst possible situation. Disaster recovery prioritizes the speed of recovery and the minimization of data loss. DRaaS solutions do this by replicating your servers and infrastructure to a secondary compliant disaster recovery site.

Key differences between BaaS & DRaaS

Protection

Data has become one of the most valuable commodities in today’s society. Data can be used by companies to provide their core services, but also data collection holds huge power when paired with predictive analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. It is for these reasons that data loss can be catastrophic to service delivery, reputation and revenue generation.

The objective of both BaaS and DRaaS is to retain as much of the initial data when a disaster strikes. However, the primary distinction between the two is that BaaS is focused solely on long term data retention, whereas DRaaS is focused on shortterm data retention, through replicating data and infrastructure.

Method

These modern methods of data backup are cloud-based services which are managed by established providers.

In BaaS, the data is often backed up to a local appliance, which can then be moved to a remote location for safe storage, or backups are completed over the internet using an encrypted private network. In the event of a disaster, relevant datasets are copied back into the original environment, however this is a lengthy process as it focuses on reducing the cost of storing data rather than the availability of it.

Whereas, DRaaS main objective is to ensure that the data is readily accessible by using replication techniques. It achieves this by using a third party private cloud services provider which automatically synchronizes snapshots of the client’s infrastructure and data. In the event of a disaster, the client can quickly restore the last copy of the complete system.

Pricing

DRaaS is a more expensive option than BaaS as it is focused on rapid recovery of data and business-critical infrastructure. BaaS is an ideal low-cost solution for smaller companies where the potential for small data or downtime is feasible. However, if the organisation has a large reputation or the financial cost of downtime outweighs the cost of investment – then DRaaS is the obvious choice.